Cameo, Zapp
Soundboard

When: Fri., Aug. 22, 7 p.m. 2008

Larry Blackmon and his rotating band of bros haven’t had a certifiable hit since 1986’s Word Up!, but they haven’t let that slow down their release schedule. Since their star began to fade in the early 90s, Cameo has issued a startling 14 best-ofs in a row with nary an original album to mix things up, repackaging and re-repackaging their hard ’n’ smooth synth-funk in a seemingly infinite array of combinations. Though overshadowed in public awareness by the codpiece-era material, Blackmon’s deep disco work, circa 1977-’82, has been kept alive in the zillion hip-hop songs that have sampled it. —Jessica Hopper